On October 31, 2024, the police updated the "Deployment and Use of Stun Grenades" policy. The new version (Heb) allows officers to throw stun grenades in close proximity to protesters, expands officers’ discretion in the field, and does not require officers to undergo training in crowd dispersal methods. On November 27, 2024, we approached the Legal Advisor to the Government and the Legal Advisor to the Police, demanding that they immediately instruct the police to revoke the policy update and completely prohibit the use of stun grenades in protests and demonstrations.
Freedom of Protest Department Head Sivan Tahel and Adv. Nitsan Ilani explained in their appeal that a stun grenade cannot be aimed accurately. Because its impact and where it explodes cannot be controlled, it can cause significant injuries. The combination of these dangers, coupled with the violent conduct of the police during protests makes the stun grenade a dangerous tool that should not be used in demonstrations. Tahel and Adv. Ilani argued that the stun grenade usage policy was already de facto excessive before the changes, since it already permitted the use of such an extreme and dangerous tool against citizens. After the change, it is even more extreme and dangerous, endangering protesters’ lives and bodies through the use of excessive and illegal force.
The petition further argues that the policy change creates the impression of a modification tailor-made to benefit Police Superintendent Suissa and the four other police officers against whom an indictment was filed for throwing stun grenades at a crowd of protesters that injured several. Once the policy was updated, most of the actions described in the indictment become permissible under it. As the appeal states: "This can only mean that instead of professional considerations serving as a basis for changing the policy, the police acted from an extraneous motive of providing immunity to these violent police officers and superintendents, or out of a political consideration and desire to please the minister in charge.”
ACRI’s petition, November 27, 2024 (Heb)
